Rippers suck. They’re an exclusively close-ranged DPS characters with little burst, little to no AOE, horrible against mobile targets, and is probably the noisiest class in DN. Compared to the meta DPS characters like Adepts and Moonlords, Rippers are heavily outshined in comparison as we don’t have a way to deal burst damage in the same way as those classes do. However, by the end of this guide, hopefully you’ll know enough not to suck as a Ripper and be a decent, competitive DPS.

So, aren’t Rippers completely shyt then?

Fear not. Even though Rippers suck in those aspects, we do have our strengths. We’re not a class which can deal 1 bar’s worth of damage to boss in a single attack. Instead, a Ripper’s strength lie in its ability to deal a steady flow of damage which adds up to a lot after a certain amount of time. Basically, a Ripper is a DPS in the truest sense of the term.

Is that so? Then what am I, as a Ripper, supposed to do to not suck?

This guild will be divided into three sections: Skill build, Item build, and General Tactics.

Read carefully and hopefully, by the end of this guide you’ll learn how to Ripper. Or something.

You skipped through my entire introduction didn’t you? That took a long time to write, you fish. If you didn’t, good for you. Anyway, here’s the reasoning as to why I did what I did and didn’t do what I didn’t.

Assassin Skill Tree:
Self explanatory. Get all the necessary passives, Max Physical Mastery for obvious purposes, as well as Mind Conquer for the mana regen.

Why Triple Edge?
-It’s up to you whether you want to get it or not. It’s just a tumble-extender which I now find useful for some reason.

What if I don't want Triple edge? Can I get something else?
-If you do decide to drop Triple Edge for some reason, then putting those extra skill points on something else also works. I would personally suggest maxing Mental Mastery (3->4) then getting lvl6 Piercing star, because it's a cool skill.

Chaser Skill Tree:

Max Shift Blow?
-Yes, max it. Since having your Arsonist buff up gives this skill a -50% in CD. That means 1500% board damage every 5 seconds, with the chance to proc an illusion every time, essentially doubling it's dps. It also looks pretty cool. Po-po-pow! Boom!

Why even max Rain Drop? It’s not even Fire elem.
-After much debating and personal testing, it's pretty much certain that Rain Drop, despite being a Dark elem skill is too good to pass up. Just by constantly spamming it whenever it's up, the skill has always managed to be in the 2-4th place, right along with Mortal Blow, and Additional damage.

Maxed Izuna Drop?
-Yes, since Izuna Drop got buffed and is now a respectable DPS skill again. Also, you can proc your skill mastery on it, which gives you a chance to summon an Illusion to do the skill again, which essentially doubles its DPS.

Maxed Burning Coal? What madness is this?!
-Well, since the update, Burning Coal is pretty much officially the most OP I-frame skill in DN, with a 2000% board damage on a 6s CD. That's more DPS than even your Izuna Drop.

6 on Shadow Hand?
-Yes. The quick cast and SA break is incredibly useful for PvP. You can use it to cancel stuff like Hacking stance and the likes.

Chaser Skill Tree:

Why get punishment?
-Punishment is very good for Pvp. You can use it to re-lift enemies on the ground, or as a mid-ranged skill to catch that pesky Elestra that's barely out of reach.

Ripper Skill Tree:
Same as the PvE build. Just max everything.

Wait, this skill build has 31 SP left over? Like, u wot m8?
-Well, the thing with Pvp is that everyone has a different style. Some people like to get lvl 11 on Piercing star, some like to get lvl 11 on Rain Drop, some like to max evasion skills like Shadow Step, while some like to skip Dash, etc. Basically, the skill build here is just an outline on what skills you should have. Everything else is up to personal preference.

Disclaimer: These are my Personal builds, which I made to suit my playstyle. It’s been tested by me, and it works for me. Now, if it doesn’t suit your playstyle, or just doesn’t work for you, then feel free to make adjustments.

As a Ripper, there are three things which you should be focusing on: Agi, Fire Attack, and Physical Attack. With that said, everything you get should revolve around getting as much of those three things.So… What Plates should I get?
-Wind
-Destruction
-Life Vitality
-Health
-Bear
-Fatal
-Iron Wall
-Limitation

Those are your Main plates. Of course, as with most things, those are not set in stone. You can change them if you want. Some other Plate choices could be: Ultimate, Attack, and Concentration. If you ever want to replace any of these plates, I would suggest replacing either Iron Wall and/or Fatal(if you can hit max crit without it).

But what about 3rd stats? What should I get?
If you're rich enough to afford 3rd stat plates, there are two things that you can choose from : P.att or Agi. 3rd stat P.att provides more P.att than Agi plates(obviously), but 3rd Stat Agi plates also boost your crit along with your P.att. Basically, go Agi if you need more crit, or P.att if you feel that you have enough.

What about skill plates?
I’ll split the skill plates into 2 categories: Mandatory and Suggested.

Mandatory:

Artful Chaser-Action Speed
-Artful Chaser is probably the slowest skill to cast out there. By the time you’ve finished casting this without an AS plate, the enemy has either moved, or you’ve eaten like 3 attacks already.

Shift Blow-Action Speed
-Although it’s not as slow as Artful Chaser, the extra action speed makes it a lot easier to use somehow. You’ll see the difference once you use it. It’s also incredibly useful for PvP purposes.

Flame Locust-Damage
-On paper, Flame Locust CD gives more damage than the Damage plate. However, you won't realistically be casting Flame Locust every off-CD so go with a Damage plste.

Suggested:

Mortal Blow-Damage
-More damage on a skill which does 3115% damage with 3 charges. It’s a decent plate.

Dedicate Shadow-CD
-Dedicate shadow is your personal healing skill. It's basically your panic button whenever you get hit and there's no heals available on your supports. Nothing wrong with having it on a lower CD.

Crippling Punisher-Duration/CD
-This depends a lot on your playstyle. If you like spamming your ulti every time it's off CD, then get the CD plate. If you're the kind of guy who wants to make the most out of his ulti every time there's a DPS window, then get the Duration plate. Also, by getting the duration plate, it allows you to potentially send off an extra wave of illusions.

Equipments

There's a huge variety of equipment that Rippers can choose from, and how you should gear yours depends highly on your budget.

- Once you've hit this Tier, you'll ascend to a different plane of existence. You'll start noticing random people liking you out of nowhere. Pubs will worship your unbelievably high DPS. Random scrubs with their filthy average tier gears will always be around you, probably examining your gear. All that's left is to go full FD.

What about Accessories?
There are a shyt ton of possible Accessory combinations that you can do, so I’ll just list down things about them. It’s up to you how to mix and match them.

93A(Theano, Desirious) accs- 93 accs would give you the largest amount of HP possible, as 93 jades give %HP. It’s also very cheap to build, as you’re guaranteed to be able to get it just by doing your nests weekly.

Skill accs
- Skill accs give a +1 to any given skill. If you plan on going for skill rings, get the ones with Crit+Fire attack, which can boost your Fire attack by 4.07%, which equates to almost 11-12% Fire attack per ring. As for Skill earrings, get the ones with Vit + Fire/Ice attack.

(Old) L-Grade Rings

Spoiler

-One of the best rings in the game. Give 4.31% P.att and 8% Fire attack, and with a good pot, also 8% Dark attack. That’s like having a Ring with Destruction, Fire, and Dark jades in it. Now, the reason why these rings are arguably the best rings in the game is situational is because the bonuses they give is % based. If your P.att is more than 160k without rings, then these rings give more damage than RDNL + L-grade jades, if my math is correct.

(New) L-grade Rings + L-Grade Fire Jade

Spoiler

- RDNL rings are extremely situational. Depending on certain factors, it can be completely average, or one of the better rings in the game. Firstly, when used alone, RDNL rings are so not worth it that even Coma rings would probably be a better choice. However, since the release of L-grade jades, RDNL rings became one of the best rings in the games, since they're the one of the few rings which can accommodate them. With RDNL Rings + L-grade jades, you can get 6k+ P.att for each ring, along with a lot of bonus stats and Critical Damage. Add to that the option to get either an RDNL Neck/Earring, which gives another set bonus, it just becomes really OP.

Genesis accessories

Spoiler

- Genesis accessories are without a doubt, the best accessories in the game. Combining the pros of the old and new L-grade rings, it has both % based bonuses for P.att and Stats, while also being able to use L-grade jades. Also, the Genesis Necklace is the only necklace in the game which has Fire Attack, which along with the fact that it provides godly amount of stats, makes it extremely OP. Oh, and there's also the fact that each piece gives 330 FD, which means that completing the entire set essentially gives you 1000 FD.

III. General Tactics
Ok, now that we’re done discussing where to put your SP on and which items to get, it’s time to teach you how to use your Ripper.

Skill Rotation
As a Ripper, your main job is to keep dealing continuous DPS on your opponent. However, just randomly pressing buttons like you’ve probably been doing would lead you to doing less than optimal DPS. So Im gonna show the proper order of skills for you to use.

Main Skill Rotation:Blade Runner -> Flame Locust -> Burning Coal

This is your main skill rotation. Yes, just those three skill. Flame Locust and Burning coal forms the bulk of your DPS. Just those two skills combined guarantee a 8000%+ board damage every 6s, which is crazy. As for Blade Runner, it's just there for the debuff.

Yes, in that exact order. Before you DPS, always make sure that you have your Arsonist buff on. It’s 30% Fire Attack. That’s a huge chunk of damage you’re losing if you don’t use it. Dedicate Crow is only used when the boss is above 50% HP, so skip it if the boss is low. So why in that order exactly? Well, applause applies a Crit resistance Debuff to make sure that you’re gonna crit a lot, and Blade Runner applies an Elem resist Debuff. Basically, this chain of skills is just to make sure that your ultimate hits for it's full potential

Basically, always keep your Raindrop and Mortal Blow off 3/3 ctc so that you dont waste the extra CD. If they happen to both be at 3x, prioritize using Raindrop because 1st, it has a really short CD of 6 secs, which is double that of Mortal Blow at 12 secs, and 2nd, it is more efficient because Raindrop has this slight delay before it actually does damage, which syncs it with your Mortal Blow.

Skill Tips

Applause double hit
-Basically, instead of aiming your cursor at your target, aim at his side, until your target is somewhere between your cursor and the edge of your screen. By doing so, you’ll get twice the hits from Applause.

Shift Blow Cancelling
-The last explosion of Shift Blow is slow as fish. However, it’s actually possible to cancel it by pressing right click, and still get the damage for the explosion if you time it right.

Crippling Punisher
-Your Ultimate skill is, surprise surprise, your most powerful skill. Basically, it allows you to summon clones to do your skills for you. However, Im guessing that what you didn’t know is that those clones take the same stats that you have at the moment you summon them. Meaning? Cast Arsonist before spamming those clones, so that they’ll have more damage.

Burning Coal is OP
- It always bothers me when I see people playing Rippers and they dont (or barely) use Burning Coal. It is a 2000% damage skill on a 6 second CD. That's literally more DPS than your Izuna Drop if you manage to spam it correctly. And the only thing you need to do it press space when doing skills. And guess what? The game actually counts your Right-Click (Kicking) as a skill. So you don't even need to put it in your Skill Bar, just press Right-Click and Space bar in quick succesion, and it'll activate.

Flame Locust is your best friend
- For such an lame looking skill, this one is arguably one of the most OP skills in the game. With the introduction of the May 3 Buffs, Flame Locust was given a 200% additional attack power on the last hit. That means that since Flame Locust deals roughly 2000% Damage, the last hit of this skill would deal 4000% damage. That is 6000% damage on a 6 sec CD skill! That is basically 12000% Damage every 12 seconds. So what does that mean? Spam this shyt. Literally every time you see it off CD. Bind it to whatever button you press the most. Seriously, it's Overpowered(Keep in mind, I do that every 6 or so seconds).

CMii Dual Casting (Mosty focusing on Artful Chaser INS)

-If you manage to get a INS proc on your Artful Chaser, use your Shift Blow and Izuna Drop. If either of those skills proc their INS, you can use Artful Chaser INS a second time. Or you can just cancel Artful Chaser midway. For some reason sometimes the INS lasts long enough to do a 2nd cast (not 100% reliable though, I think it has something to do with AS buffs or something).

Izuna Drop is a better parry than Parry
-For those that didn't know, whenever you cast Izuna Drop, you will end up in an "Indian Sitting" position. This position indicates that you are in a "Blocking" state, and any attack that hits you while in that position will be blocked. This is especially useful when dodging stomps (Quite redundant for single stomps, but very useful for multiple consecutive stomps like in IDN, since you basically dodge 2 stomps), and stuff like RDN, when your party fails to kill the three Spirits in time.

Anyway, this is about it for now. I’ll try to update this guide with some other things (like a pvp guide maybe, although Im not so good at it) when I feel like it. Also, if I missed anything, or if you have any questions, feel free to reply.

As for weapons, I would highly suggest getting either 80A, or RDU ones. Why? Because 90A weapons only have 1 jade slot, which is for a fire jade. That means that if you use them, you’ll basically lose out on 2200+ agi, which is a lot of damage and crit. In short, 90A weapons are crap for Rippers at least.

How bout 90 nightmare weapons? how many jade slot do they have? are they worth to get?

How bout 90 nightmare weapons? how many jade slot do they have? are they worth to get?

Only 1 jade slot unfortunately. It does give a huge amount of P.att though, but I still dont think it's worth it for the amount of crit that you'll lose.

unknownH12, on 05 January 2016 - 01:21 PM, said:

Hey Nateal, can you skip on using Applause in the combo if you have max crit? Because with the hybrid skill build applause does shyt damage.

If you have max crit, then sure. But the thing is that it's a debuff, so that means that not only you, but your team(who prolly don't have max crit) will benefit from it as well, so I would still suggest using it if you're in a party.

Hey Nateal, can you skip on using Applause in the combo if you have max crit? Because with the hybrid skill build applause does shyt damage.

The computation of crit and crit resist is different from element and elemental resist.

Crit is a chance and crit resist is another chance. They're 2 separate dice rolls. Max crit guarantees that 89% of the time your hit will be a critical but if your target has 30% crit resist then he has 30% to negate that critical hit. It will not be a net effect of 59% crit chance, no.

In short, you still need to apply crit resist debuff and applause is crucial in this.

applause to raindrop is a good alternative, while applause damage is nice (1k and 2k with double hit) what ripper actually need is some kind of burst, that's where triple raindrop burst comes in, about 7k% of dark elemental damage with 60 seconds cooldown (i know it's pretty long), if you compare dps, applause will win, but the main usage of rain drop is the burst anyway, and applause can sometimes be awkward to cast when you're constantly dpsing with rippers tree skills, oh btw and it also take rake which is good filler with applause

Wait, isn’t that fishing huge?! That’s like 8424% board damage for 3 charges!-Yes, it is. But then again, you’re Fire elem and Rain drop is Dark. So that damage is not as large as it looks like since you won’t be using Dark jades. It’s still pretty decent though.

sorry quite lazy to quote (and i don't know how beside pressing that quote button)i know, but it applies to applause too, applause is neutral damage, dark can still be increased by ring, title (which usually comes with all element anyway)considering you're using most basic stuffs, 2x brilliant and title, that would bring your dark to about 9%

applause to raindrop is a good alternative, while applause damage is nice (1k and 2k with double hit) what ripper actually need is some kind of burst, that's where triple raindrop burst comes in, about 7k% of dark elemental damage with 60 seconds cooldown (i know it's pretty long), if you compare dps, applause will win, but the main usage of rain drop is the burst anyway, and applause can sometimes be awkward to cast when you're constantly dpsing with rippers tree skills, oh btw and it also take rake which is good filler with applause

As a Ripper, your job is not to provide burst, because Rippers have multiple hitting skills which suck at doing just that. Although the board damage of Rain Drop is indeed good, as you've mentioned it is dark element, and since 90 cap bosses all have 40% elem resistance for all elements, you'd actually be doing around 30% less damage with that, so it's not exactly worth it unless you cast it 3x during your fade combo, which I've noted above in the guide.

Also, well, rake does work as a filler skill, but it's not really that exceptional since you'll just be leaving it at lvl 1 anyway.

Thanks very much for this guide. I decided to make a 2nd main to do more dungeons coming from ML.
Very very awesome guide.
EDIT: I have played it and now leveled it up to 75. It's actually very annoying to constantly buff since it's a very short duration. When I have my ult activated, I feel like a god but without it, I feel so lackluster. :/ Coming from a ML, definitely can feel the lack of aoe.

Ok, after playing Ripper for a bit longer I just have some questions.
How does Raid actually work? It says the duration is 15 seconds but it's clearly much longer than that in my buff bar.
Also, currently the skill heraldries I'm using are Artful Chaser (AS), Shift Blow (AS), Flame Locust (CD) and Mortal Blow (DMG). Main thing I kinda don't like is the Flame Locust CD plate because I feel like it's up more than it needs to be. That's why I'm thinking about changing it to maybe Crippling Punisher CD? What do you think about this plate?
With ult I feel like god mode and without it I just feel so weak.
Also do the AS plates help speed up the skills for my shadow as well?

Ok, after playing Ripper for a bit longer I just have some questions.
How does Raid actually work? It says the duration is 15 seconds but it's clearly much longer than that in my buff bar.
Also, currently the skill heraldries I'm using are Artful Chaser (AS), Shift Blow (AS), Flame Locust (CD) and Mortal Blow (DMG). Main thing I kinda don't like is the Flame Locust CD plate because I feel like it's up more than it needs to be. That's why I'm thinking about changing it to maybe Crippling Punisher CD? What do you think about this plate?
With ult I feel like god mode and without it I just feel so weak.
Also do the AS plates help speed up the skills for my shadow as well?

for now, nope (the shadow)
flame locust CD with plate is 4.8, that means with every 2 tumble you would use it at least once,maximizing dps with that kind of cooldown is too hard, better for you to take damage plate, for now blade runner is better than mortal blow, you will spam it, and the damage is higher anyway, i recommend changing mortal to blade runner if you have spare,
Crippling CD is also viable, either change that flame locust or mortal blow, if you have 900 level combined it will reduce your cooldown to measly 90 seconds, i actually spam my ult pretty often now

Ok, after playing Ripper for a bit longer I just have some questions.
How does Raid actually work? It says the duration is 15 seconds but it's clearly much longer than that in my buff bar.

Raid is a 300s buff which procs every time you hit a critical attack. Basically, while the buff is on, every critical hit you do will deal 15% more damage, shown as those white "+" damage that you see.

Also, currently the skill heraldries I'm using are Artful Chaser (AS), Shift Blow (AS), Flame Locust (CD) and Mortal Blow (DMG). Main thing I kinda don't like is the Flame Locust CD plate because I feel like it's up more than it needs to be. That's why I'm thinking about changing it to maybe Crippling Punisher CD? What do you think about this plate?

I personally wouldn't plate Crippling Punisher CD. As good as it is, you wont necessarily spam it every time it's off cooldown(Or at least, I don't). I usually use it on less mobile bosses like Minotaur and Manticore in MN, and Toadstool and Golem in ABN. With that said, it's usually up during times when I need it, so I didn't bother plating it. But if you really want to replace your Flame Locust plate, Arsonist CD would probably by the best. Feel free to experiment tho.

With ult I feel like god mode and without it I just feel so weak.
Also do the AS plates help speed up the skills for my shadow as well?

No unfortunately, and that's part of the reason as to why I don't spam Crippling Punisher. If you use it on mobile bosses, like Gargoyle on MN, your Illusions would just miss their attacks anyway.

Skill crests sometimes are more of a personal preference thing. I play NA so names for skills are slight different. For me I use Reaper ulti cd along with the 10% from 900 lvl combine. It's not needed for regular nesting/nightmare and what not but for RDN that's your best burst. You almost can't have sustain dps in there because bosses are always using attacks where you can't get close to it or doing mechs anyway.

So when there are small burst windows you want to have your ulti up as much as possible for it and for those dps checks your gonna need it too. Tbh none of flame locust, mortal blow or blade runner is worth plating atm until the buffs unless you plate blade runner for cd because it helps all party members for that 20% elemental where most dps are ice converted now for RDN.